EVE Online Tyrannis launch day roundup

EVE Online's long-awaited Tyrannis expansion is finally upon us and here at Massively we're celebrating with a roundup of our recent Tyrannis coverage. The expansion's main feature is a form of planetary interaction that gives players the ability to colonise and industrialise the planets of New Eden. Tyrannis also sees some important changes coming to EVE, with a new insurance scheme coming into effect and the release of the EVE Gate social network. Tyrannis was initially scheduled for May 18th but some last-minute changes forced CCP to push it back to May 26th to give more time for testing. The structures necessary for planetary interaction will be released on June 8th, giving players around two weeks to learn the new skills and plan the conquest of their favourite planets.

As you wait for your client to update, catch up with our previous coverage below and be sure to visit the official Tyrannis features page for more details, backgrounds and interview videos.

EVE Online's next expansion revealed: Explore planets in TyrannisIt's been known since the last EVE Online Fanfest that the next expansion would be based around planetary interaction, but details on exactly what that interaction would constitute have been thin on the ground. In a bumper devblog today, EVE's Senior Producer Torfi Frans Olafsson gave a first glimpse of what we can expect this summer.

EVE Evolved: What could planetary interaction be like?The information we have so far on the expansion is limited to a single devblog, which provides only a general mission statement for the expansion. In the absence of further information, I find myself wondering what the planetary interaction in Tyrannis might be like. In this speculative opinion piece, I look over the information we know for sure about Tyrannis and go on to speculate on what it might be like.

Click past the cut to see more of our Tyrannis coverage!

GDC10: Torfi Frans Olafsson gives details on Tyrannis, Incarna and morewe caught up with EVE Senior Producer Torfi Frans Olafsson at GDC 2010 to get the inside scoop. Torfi was keen to point out that a lot of what CCP are doing in Tyrannis is laying the foundation for future updates and expansions. He calls Tyrannis "a stepping stone toward something even bigger."

EVE Tyrannis expansion trailer confirms May 18th release dateAlthough the summer expansion can sometimes come as late as July, CCP have just released a new teaser trailer confirming a May 18th release date. This gives the developers just over 8 weeks to get the expansion into shape. This should give the team more time to work on the next expansion, which most are hoping will be Incarna.

EVE Online ship insurance changes to come with TyrannisThe new insurance system will provide values closer to the actual build cost for ships, with the exciting prospect that Tech 2 and 3 ships will benefit from the same coverage as Tech 1. Tech 2 and 3 ship losses should be affordable enough under the new system to regularly use them in PvP while Tech 1 ships will no longer be almost free to lose.

EVE Evolved: A sneak peak at EVE GateRecently, CCP released an early alpha version of the EVE Gate website and have begun the slow process of adding features and working out bugs. Some of the features are not active and the site is not yet tied into the active EVE server. Nevertheless, the current alpha build shows what we can expect from the site when it launches.

EVE Tyrannis site is go, flight! The new website is a grab bag full of goodies, including promotional videos, overview of the new systems, and a screenshot gallery. Wanna-be colonists looking to get a head start on the inevitable competition would do well to devour every snippet of information presented here. Head over to the official Tyrannis site and let us know what you think!

CCP release more details on Tyrannis, promise to continue development after releasePerhaps the most encouraging part of the announcement is the news that CCP has dedicated an entire development team to continue work on planetary interaction post-release. Team Pi will continue to refine the feature and tweak resource distribution after Tyrannis is launched. This is big news for players that were disappointed with the lack of post-launch development on previous big features like faction warfare ...

EVE Online Tyrannis trailer released in HDCCP have a history of producing incredible trailers for EVE and the new Tyrannis trailer is no exception. It seems to take some of the best ideas from EVE's latest fan masterpiece "Future Proof" and develop them further. With CCP's usual level of professional polish and dramatisation, this is a trailer that has to be seen.

EVE Online brings back live events with TyrannisThe idea that if you were in the right place at the right time you could become embroiled in a terrorist plot or find yourself in the midst of an epic battle between NPC factions was as intoxicating back in 2005 as it is today. This is sure to be a huge boost not just for EVE's role-playing community but for the everyday player that wants to get involved in the great stories of New Eden.

CCP announces Tyrannis delaySenior Producer Torfi Frans Olafsson, writing on the official EVE Dev Blog, briefly outlines the reasoning behind the delays. "In our regression testing, we have identified scalability issues with the Planetary Interaction feature, which led to code refactoring that then needed further testing before being launched to Tranquility.

Massively's EVE Online Tyrannis contestsOver the past two weeks we've been running some awesome weekly contests for readers to win EVE Online game time courtesy of CCP Games. In celebration of the upcoming launch of EVE's Tyrannis expansion, we gave away 10 PLEX in our planet screenshot contest two weeks ago. Last week, we ran a caption competition with a 15 PLEX prize total and received a flood of entries.

EVE dev blog details Tyrannis API additionsThe new Tyrannis expansion, recently delayed a week to May 26th, will expand on the game's history of making its APIs (application programming interface) available to players and enterprising programmers. "In Tyrannis we are delivering a vastly improved contacts system and the new calendar. For these features, we will be providing a new set of APIs for you to consume in your own applications.